Contributors: Maria Letizaia Terranova
Published in Nuclear Future 22.4
Nuclear medicine is increasingly driven by next-generation tailored radionuclides enabling highly sensitive diagnostic imaging, precision targeted radiotherapy and innovative theranostic strategies
This short review discusses the physical and radiochemical requirements of medical radionuclides, highlighting the main diagnostic and therapeutic nuclides currently used or under development.
Current limitations in the availability and large-scale production of high-purity radionuclides are examined and discussed in the context of advanced projects and emerging technologies, including high-flux reactors, accelerator-driven systems and novel photon-based facilities.
Maria Letizia Terranova is a Full Professor at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and former Head of the Department of Chemical Sciences and Technologies. She coordinated MINIMAlab, a multidisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to the development of innovative materials and systems for microand nano-electronics, photonics, field emission, energetics, sensing, thermal management and regenerative medicine.
Throughout her career, she pursued parallel research activities in materials science and nanotechnology, and in the experimental investigation of nuclear reactions and radioactive decay processes. Her current research interests span a broad range of radioactivity-related topics, including radioisotope-based energy technologies, nuclear batteries, spent nuclear fuel and radioactive
waste management, the role of radioactivity in the life sciences, medical radionuclides, and the application of radioisotopes to cosmochronology. She is the holder of five patents, editor of eight books, and co-author of more than 360 scientific publications, including about 70 peer-reviewed papers in the nuclear field.
